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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

I don't quite know what to say. I was transfixed by the wonderful control that you show in this piece, by the ease with which you play it and by the wonderful tonal palette that you evoke from the piano.

Others more familiar with the work may have specific points to bring up, but all I can add is :

This is one of my favorite pieces of all time to listen to (actually, all of Miroirs...). This is a wonderful performance. One thing I like about listening to impressionist pieces is the way that each performance is colored slightly differently by the specific piano, its tuning, and the unique "voice" of the person sitting at the bench. Your performance is very engaging. Thank you so much for sharing!

I can't wait to hear what you do with Kapustin!!! More Kapustin! More Ravel!

Beautiful! I don't know the piece well either, but with many performers (even pros) it feels a bit too repetitive to hold my interest - I didn't feel that at all with your performance. As BruceD said, your control is truly impressive.

I think you paint the impression better in the second recording--that is, a small boat on a chaotic sea--swells and swirls. The recital performance is "tidy" by comparison. I enjoyed them both, but you seemed more free in the alternate recording, which helped the music, imo.

Pogorelich.
4000 Post Club Member
Registered: 12/28/08
Posts: 4610
Loc: not somewhere over the rainbow

Originally Posted By: debrucey

It's a Zoom Q2HD. Not ideal, obviously I would get better results with separate microphones placed nearer the piano, but needs must.

I don't know, the closer you place them to the piano the drier the sound will be. Ideally you'd place one (or two) mics around the first row of the audience, depending on how small or big the hall is..

_________________________"The eyes can mislead, the smile can lie, but the shoes always tell the truth."

Your rachmaninoff was recorded with mics facing into the piano and it sounds great. Studios will use additional mics placed further away to catch some of the room resonance too I guess. The best recording quality I've ever made was with a pretty close mic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F81LROhEd40Same room too incidentally

DeBrucey, having listened to both recordings back to back, I pretty clearly prefer the resonance in your "alternate" recording -- something about it that is richer in feeling, and I don't think that has to do with the performance aspect, but more specifically the recording "chemistry" (really closer to physics, it should be admitted). IMO, you have a special affinity for the Ravelian gesture -- a highly romantic sensibility wedded to an insistence on classical clarity -- and either recording is a delight to listen to!

I assumed there would have been others. I think if I couldn't do bother and had to choose between close or far setup I'd go for close. But then, I have a preference for a slightly more 'studio-clean' sound in piano recordings.